Note 1. William Cowper became a poet at the suggestion of his friends, to relieve a melancholic mind from feeding upon itself. At the suggestion of the Rev. John Newton, the curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire, he co-operated with him in writing hymns for the church there. The sweetest of Cowpers, Hark, my soul, is too well known to quote; but two others of the collection, which are rather poems than hymns are here given. For the rest, his verse, though often serious, offers no material for a Lyra Sacra. [back]